A lot of people got really upset when pebble got acquired by Fitbit last year, but today Fitbit announced a very pebble like looking smart watch and fitness tracker, the Fitbit Versa. Smart watches haven’t really caught on as much as people thought they would. These days the majority of people who do use a smart watch are likely using an apple watch and rumors are going around that Google is going to be rebranding android wear to Wear OS. So are we going to see a reusegance in capable smartwatches? Cause the Fitbit Versa looks kind of promising. Fitbit really needs a win here cause their Fitbit ionic just isn’t selling as well as they hoped.

So lets get to know the Fitbit versa, this new smartwatch is going to be retailing for $199.99 and they should start shipping in April. Design wise the Fitbit Versa is very similar to the Apple Watch and I think the Versa looks way better than the Fitbit Ionic. The Fitbit versa has a light weight anodized aluminum body and there are a few colors to choose from, theres black, rose gold, and silver. Your typical colors. For $200 the Versa will come with a color matching silicon wrist band or for $230 you can get a woven wristband instead. And personally I’m really feeling that Graphite Case and Woven Charcoal Band version. And as always you can also remove the wrist bands on the new Versa and swap them out for leather wrist bands that start off at $50 or you can also get a steel wrist band which cost $80 or $100 depending on the style. And for comparison, the Fitbit Ionic starts off at $300.

The Fitbit Versa is going to do everything you’d expect a Fitbit Smart Watch to do. It plays nice with iPhone, Android, or window devices. Its going to track your steps, track your activity and sleep, its swim proof so you can track real-time laps, exercise duration, and calories burned on device while swimming, its going to show you your notifications you can store up to 300 songs on it and it has a built in NFC chip so you can use it to pay for stuff… But only if you get the $230 version. And also, quick reply will only work if you’re using an android device. The main difference between the Fitbit Versa and Fitbit Ionic is that the Fitbit Versa uses connected GPS unlike the Fitbit Iconic which has built in LTE and GPS. This means that if you’re a runner and if you want to track your workout when using the Versa you have to bring your phone along where as with the Ionic you can leave your phone behind because the Ionic has the necessary hardware to track your position on its own. Also, the Fitbit Versa has an advertised battery life of 4 days while the Ionic has an advertised battery life of 5 days. Obviously depending on how you use it your battery life will vary.

Also at their event, Fitbit announced that they will be rolling out a new feature to their app that will allow women to track their cycle if they want, but this feature will only be avilbel to Versa or Ionic users. Fitbit also announced their new Fitbit Ace, a wearable for kids with a 5 day battery life. Basically its a smaller version of the Fitbit Alta that should fit smaller writs for kids 8 years and older and the idea is is that the Ace will be able to give parents a better insight on their kids activity levels sleeping patterns while motivating and creating healthy lifestyle habits in children at a younger age. Personally I think thats a good idea.

But other than that, the Fitbit versa isn’t all that different to the Fitbit ionic in terms of features. Its going to do basically the same things but the versa lacks built in GPS and has a slightly shorter battery. But since the Fitbit Ionic wasn’t the mega hit Fitbit expected they might have better luck with the Versa, its much less expensive and it looks much better. But comment down below, what do you think about the Versa? Do you think it looks better or worse than the Ionic. Are you a pebble user? What do you think about this new smart watch? Would you strap a fitness tracker on your kid? Or do you think we’re about to see another wave of new wearables when app Google rebrand and reamps their smart watch OS?